Dear Ones,
Hope you have a joy filled day! Al will be preaching this morning and I have exercise class, crafts, and Bible study at church. Good we have so many opportunities to gather with others. 
Devotions from Judy’s heart
 We need one another for God has not made us to be an island unto ourselves but has created us to be interdependent. That means community is important for we all have need to love and be loved in order to be complete. As we experience God’s love for us, we can love and care for those around us. As it says in I John 4:19, “We love because He first loved us”. If we are negligent in caring for others, maybe we fail to know how God cares for us.  Perhaps we need to spend time in quiet and think of all the ways God shows His love for us; He provides for us, not only physically but for our souls. He is always listening to us, encouraging us, protecting us, healing us, speaking to us, and using others to bless us etc.                                 

God wants to take each one of us and use us also to show His love and care for others; even the very way we live effects the lives of those around us. We may show His love in caring for their physical needs, and have countless opportunities to do that; it may mean taking someone to the Doctor, visiting a lonely person, fixing a widow’s car, bringing a meal to someone just home from the hospital etc. He also uses us to care for the souls of others and we may never know how a word of scripture and encouragement can impact their life, or simply listening. When I question the Lord if I should keep writing, He sends me words through others that lets me know His answer. A positive word can change the course of a person’s life.

 James Smith shares the story of a woman who was old and not in good health and lost her loved ones. She was ready for God to take her home, but she felt God telling her to write to prisoners. She wrote a letter to the prisoners saying she was willing to be their friend and would answer every letter she received. She ended up corresponding with hundreds of inmates and it became the most fulfilling years of her life.

There are so many ways we can care for others, and it could be sharing a scripture, praying for them, or simply texting them you are thinking of them. Let us love and care for others as He loves and cares for us.

Challenge for today: Express God’s love in a tangible way to someone the Holy Spirit lays on your heart.
Blessings on your day and prayers and love, Judy